The health and safety of employees was front and centre at Kubota Materials Canada (KMC) on Commerce Road this week.
As part of North American Occupational Safety and Health Week, Kubota is hoping to put health and safety at the forefront of the minds of all employees, says Jason Dillman, the senior manager of HR and environmental health and safety.
“We are really reasserting a safety mindset,” he said. “We’ve done activities throughout the week to bring safety back to the forefront.”
The first-ever week-long safety event at Kubota follows an October 2021 incident in which a worker was seriously injured.
According to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, Kubota endangered the safety of the worker and was fined $90,000 for violating section 24 of the regulation for industrial establishments, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
"We are trying to get better," Dillman said, noting this week's events aren't a direct response to that incident. "Our main overall goal is to really put safety in the forefront of people's minds as they are working every day."
Dillman says Kubota recently hired a new health and safety manager, Katiucia Magalhoes, which is what inspired the safety week.
"She's very energetic," he said. "She has lots of great and new ideas, and we are trying to implement them."
Dillman hopes that by bringing safety to the forefront of the minds of all employees, injuries like the one that occurred in 2021, will not happen again.
“We have 350 people working here,” he said. “It’s important that everybody goes home at the end of the day.”
The week culminated on Thursday afternoon with guest speaker Johanna LeRoux from Thread of Life, a charity that supports people and families who have experienced workplace tragedies.
LeRoux, 57, spoke about her son Michael who was seriously injured on a cold January day in 2006 after falling off a ladder while working a roofing job in Innisfil. After battling a coma in Sunnybrook Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries days later, dying at just 22 years old.
“Since I lost my son, it has become more and more important to me to ensure that the tragedy that our family went through doesn’t happen to other families,” LeRoux explained. “I know I can’t prevent every single incident and injury from happening, but if I can prevent a few by sharing my story with people and make them think about safety in a different way, then that’s why I do it.”
LeRoux, a Barrie native, hopes that sharing her family’s grief with staff members of Kubota makes them realize that safety is about more than each individual.
“Safety isn’t something to just think about now and then,” she said. “It’s a priority for them and everyone they work with. They all need to go home safe every single day.”
Braden Petherick, a health and safety committee member, and Union representative for Kubota, was moved by LeRoux’s story.
“I hope that the importance of what you mean to your family, the people around you, and to the people here at Kubota resonates with everybody,” he said. “It’s important to take in this message of safety first, not only for yourself but for everyone around you.”
Coddie LeRoux, no relation to Johanna, is also a health and safety committee member and Union representative for Kubota. While he says he isn’t usually a super emotional guy, Johanna’s speech is something he will never forget.
“Her message today hits home,” he said. “It was super meaningful to me, and I hope a lot of people here. It really makes you think on another level.”
